policy

Policy presents one key area where change around intellectual property and Indigenous rights can occur. This can include development of institutional or university policy regarding how research with Indigenous peoples or on Indigenous lands is conducted; development of tribal policy around the protection of knowledge and associated resources; changes in national policy in relation to how Indigenous sovereign rights are recognized; and, at an international level, changes in how museums, libraries and archives treat their collections of Indigenous cultural material. Policy and cultural protocols offer themselves as important tools for re-organizing relationships around the control of knowledge and expressions of culture in ways that are reflective of the violence and damage of past governmental and institutional practices.